How safe do you feel in an American car? On CBS’s 60 Minutes this past Sunday, crotchety commentator Andy Rooney pondered those long-ago days when it seemed everybody in America bought a Ford. Well, here’s at least one reason why the Big Three automakers are lagging behind their overseas counterparts: safety. An auto-insurance trade organization has drummed up a list of the safest automobile models, and Honda, Subaru (part-owned by GM) and Audi vehicles fill eight of the top 13 slots. The other five are also foreign models: Saab, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia and Volvo. Maybe memories of this car still haunt the auto-buying public. —Posted by Kathleen Sampey

November 22, 2006 | Permalink

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IF (big if) the American automakers want to win, they will have to ask themselves some hard questions. And the first question would have to be: "What can we offer that the foreign automakers don't have?"
Second question: "Can we offer it without making our cars unaffordable?"
People don't care where a car is built anymore. Price and options/"gimmicks" are what are being considered in their decisions. Heated seats and mirrors, memory comfort settings, navigation equipment and so forth. I, for one, would seriously consider a car that offered all voice activated systems (except control functions like steering, accelerator and brakes etc.). That would include ignition controls - map a user's voice into the cars computer such as "start engine". The computer would run voice recognition algorithm and start the car's engine. But, alas, American automakers have little imagination when it comes to options - they just seem to be mimicing whatever the foreign makers are offering. >

Posted by: Jerry | Nov 22, 2006 8:01:09 PM

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